The general manager of the Box Springs Mutual Water Co. in Moreno Valley has resigned after investigators served search warrants at her home and office seeking evidence that $280,000 in company funds were used to pay for cruises and casino gambling,

According to court documents and water company officials, Debra D. Sutton, 56, was the focus of at least two search warrants issued last month. Company officials said Tuesday she no longer works for Box Springs Mutual.

Joseph N. Heeter, president of the water company’s board of directors, said Sutton quit at the request of the company’s attorney. Her last day was Feb. 7.

Heeter said Sutton is suspected of stealing as much as $375,505 from Box Springs Mutual over the past 2 1/2 years. The rural water company serves about 3,300 people in the Edgemont area of Moreno Valley, the majority of whom are renters.

John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney’s office, declined to comment when asked if there had been any charges filed or arrests made in the case.

Court dockets do not indicate any criminal action against Sutton in federal or state court.

Sutton, whose salary was $42,000 a year, declined to comment Tuesday outside her home in Moreno Valley, several doors from the Box Springs office. “I’m on my way to an appointment,” she said, heading to her car.

The search warrants claim that a water company ATM card issued to Sutton was used for cruises to Alaska, the Bahamas, Mexico, the Caribbean and other places.

Additionally, the ATM card was used for purchases and withdrawals “that appear to be very questionable for business account purchases and withdrawals,” court records show.

Those included “numerous purchases and/or withdrawals at the Soboba, Morongo and Edgewater (Laughlin, NV) Casinos; Alaska, Continental and United Airlines; Cheaptickets.com; Macy’s; Disneyland.” The warrant also listed Carnival Cruise Lines of Florida; San Diego Cruise ship terminal; and Sam’s Club in Bullhead City, Ariz.

According to court documents, Sutton told Jeff Chebahtah, a senior investigator for the Riverside County district attorney’s office, that she thought she was using her personal money for the trips and casinos. Sutton also told him she would make restitution if she had used the water company card, according to court documents.

Chebahtah is a federally deputized investigator assigned to the Inland Regional Corruption Task Force, and he works closely with FBI agents, according to court documents.

In an affidavit accompanying a search warrant, Chebahtah said questions about the water company emerged after an FBI agent in Riverside relayed “a suspicious activity report” regarding a bank ATM card that was issued in Sutton’s name for the water district’s account.

In one affidavit, he mentions that a federal grand jury subpoena had been issued in June for two bank accounts regarding the water company.

BLOCKED ACCESS

Ronald Marks, treasurer of the water company board of directors, said Tuesday that he thought the company’s finances became vulnerable when Box Springs Mutual switched banks.

According to the affidavit, the company accounts were changed from Provident Bank to Union Bank in early 2009.

Marks said Sutton initially started as an office clerk in January 2009. Heeter promoted her to general manager by September of that year.

Marks told investigators that even though he is treasurer, Sutton consistently blocked him from reviewing Box Springs’ accounts and at one point told him: “It’s my kitchen and I’m the chef.”

He said that Sutton and Heeter ran the company. “I never had access to the finances,” he said Tuesday. “He and Debby ran it. They played it close to the vest.”

SEVERAL CRUISES

Chebahtah described a Dec. 19 interview with Heeter at Heeter’s home in which Sutton was also present. In the portion of his interview with Sutton, Chebahtah said she claimed she kept control of the company’s ATM cards.

Sutton said she did not “intentionally” use the card for personal reasons. Then she recounted several ocean cruises she took in 2011.

She told Chebahtah she “thought she paid for the cruises with her (credit union) account debit card and said if she used the water company ATM for anything she would make restitution. ‘I should not be using (the) ATM card for anything but company business,’” Chebahtah quoted her as saying.

The search warrant affidavits also raised questions about Sutton’s gambling. Some records showed her company ATM card was frequently used at Soboba Casino near Hemet.

Sutton told the investigator that if she had used the water company ATM at casinos, that also was unintentional.

At Chebahtah’s request, Andrew Lopez, investigation and compliance manager for the Soboba Tribal Gaming Commission, checked casino records and said player card records show that Sutton gambled $5.6 million from February 2003 to December 2011. Lopez said Heeter showed no activity at the casino.

ITEMS SEIZED

During a Jan. 23 search of the water company’s offices, authorities seized business documents, financial and banking records; an ATM card in the joint name of the company and Sutton; meeting agendas for the board of directors and stockholders; notes and billing and payment documents; and one computer tower.

Officials searched Sutton’s home the same day, confiscating Carnival Cruise line documents; air travel documents, receipts and reservations; ATM receipts; and casino player club cards from Edgewater Casino and Don Laughlin’s Riverside Resort, among others.

Heeter and Rebecca Snyder, 30, who works for the company as a clerk, both said they were shocked at the accusations against Sutton.

Heeter said the first time Sutton sailed on a cruise ship, she told the staff she had won the trip in a contest.

Snyder said she has severed ties with Sutton, her stepmother, since agents raided the office Jan. 23. She said that Sutton refused to let her open company bank statements when they arrived in the mail. “Only the payments,” Snyder said.

The probe compounds the longstanding problems of 92-year-old water company. Its supply system needs at least a $15 million overhaul, but is stuck in a Catch-22. The housing boom bypassed Edgemont, one of the city’s poorest areas, which covers 480 acres. Only half is built out.

The area needs developers, whose fees would pay for sidewalks, hydrants and water-system improvements. But builders won’t come unless the water company first replaces its pipes and upgrades its water pressure.

And water company officials have said there’s no money for the upgrades.

Marks said that company’s insurer is looking into reimbursing them for just a fraction of the missing money.

Laurie Lucas started at The Press-Enterprise in 1981 in the human interest section called Sidelight. Since then she has written mostly features but also detoured into municipal meetings, covering Eastvale, Moreno Valley, Perris, Canyon Lake and Lake Elsinore. After a couple of years as a business reporter, she returned in 2014 to features. She now writes mostly profiles, arts and entertainment stories, dining profiles and a weekly Foodie Empire column. She would love to be a musician, singer dancer, artist, author or scratch cook. But because she’s not, she enjoys a vicarious thrill writing about other people’s talents.

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